Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore lashed out at attempts by groups to oust him from his post over his stance against same-sex marriage, saying the moves are politically motivated.
Moore is facing an ethics complaint filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), atheists and LGBT activists before the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission.
The complaint alleged that he urged probate judges to uphold Alabama's marriage law and not to follow the same-sex marriage ruling of the U.S. Supreme Court.
"This is not about religion. This is about my marriage and my legal orders. This is not about a wrongdoing I've done. This is not about ethics. This is about marriage," Moore was quoted by Alabama News and AL.com as saying.
"There's nothing in writing that you will find that I told anybody to disobey a federal court order," he said.
Moore told judges not to act contrary to the Alabama law against same-sex marriage licence until the Supreme Court decides on which law should be implemented in the state, LifeSite News reports.
However, probate judges ignored his instruction and issued licences to same-sex couples.
He insisted that he did not tell probate judges to disobey the Supreme Court ruling but to follow the Alabama law.
The Commission is tasked to recommend ethics charges against Moore in the Alabama Court of the Judiciary, which could recommend his removal if he is found guilty of misconduct.
The Alabama Court of the Judiciary removed Moore as chief justice in 2003 for refusing to follow a federal court order for him to remove a statute of the Ten Commandments from the Alabama Judicial Building.
He was re-elected as chief justice in 2012.
In a letter to Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley in January 2015, Moore said, "Nothing in the United States Constitution grants the federal government the authority to redefine the institution of marriage."
Last January, Moore issued an administrative order to the state's probate judges "not to issue any marriage licence contrary to the Alabama Sanctity of Marriage Amendment or the Alabama Marriage Protection Act."
"The politically motivated complaints filed with the JIC have no basis in the Canons of Judicial Ethics. The Alabama Supreme Court is the only body that has statutory authority to overrule administrative orders of the Chief Justice," said Moore's lawyer, Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel.
